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Why Your New Car's Technology Is Four Years Old
Lucas123 writes "While you can buy a 1TB hard drive for your computer for less than $100, Ford today offers 10GB. Don't expect much more anytime soon. Apart from the obvious — a car's development process can be four years long — the automotive industry also tends to be behind the tech curve because of a lack of equipment standardization. And, while it's possible for the industry to build modular infotainment systems that could be upgraded over the life of the car, there are no plans to do so. Instead, car companies intend to offer software upgradable vehicles through 4G connectivity and data storage and entertainment streaming through the cloud, which means they have to worry less about onboard hardware reliability and standardization."
They'd probably rather sell you a new car with fancy new technology than let you upgrade your existing technology.
Or, it could be that older technology is more reliable, and that's needed for the service of the vehicle. Much like how SCSI drives have never been up to the same spec for capacity as their IDE counterparts because SCSI was using tried & true technology to maintain reliability. Imagine having a rash of failed 1TB HDs in vehicle infotainment systems. Backlash galore.
Flash will fill the gap eventually, if not already happening.
There is no reason to have all of this junk in a new car. The only thing one needs is a USB charging port and an aux in for the smartphone to play audio through the cars audio system. Anything else the car does will be done poorly and until more standardization ensues, shouldn't be done. Where there is standardization, there is prosperity (USB, 3.5mm audio, Bluetooth, 12V power plugs)
Sig: I stole this sig.
car companies intend to offer software upgradable vehicles through 4G connectivity and data storage and entertainment streaming through the cloud
in english: car companies are and will continue to be behind the curve because most technology has to be tested to ensure it does not affect the engine control module, electronic stability computer, or other critical systems necessary to have a car in the 21st century. a 10gb drive may be ok, but a 1tb drive with different geometric characteristics may result in a current induction or RF interference that overrides TPMS and reports tires as too low, or for example triggers impact pre-sensors for the airbags (or worse, enabling a multistage airbag for a passenger under 45 pounds.) Having worked for a major asian automotive manufacturer, i've personally seen RF emitted from a hybrid vehicle transmission that caused unpredictable, unintentional airbag detonation. after 6 months of additional testing it had been resolved before the vehicle entered production, but the fix produced another bug that resulted in TBW signal corruption and a sharp vehicle accelleration, followed by a forced shutdown as the vehicle detected the condition.
TL;DR: your car has more technology than most people readily consider. slow and steady is a good thing.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Am I the only one that doesn't want a car that needs software updates?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
That's because a lot of manufacturers bundle together unrelated systems for upgrade packages. Want in-dash navigation? You have to get our Deluxe Travelling Upgrade for only $2499, which includes a moonroof, spoiler and complimentary handjob.
The problem here is that you will loose a lot of the things which make the engines smaller (better managing of head-gasket displacement, so smaller bore and stroke to get the same amount of power), more efficient (direct fuel injection and stroke cycles), less polluting (no need for a leaded fuel to get burn and temperatures necessary for combustion not to mention the catalytic converters), quieter (see the previous reasons), and generally more pleasant to be around as I am not choking on the smog created by the engine when it is started up.
I, for one, like to have all of those things in my car and any future cars I wish to purchase. Of course those things will require special tools. Working on engines have always required special tools.
There is a certain amount of missing the forest for the trees in your statement, I feel.
the tech I care about is safety related...I can't wait until all this stuff is standard equip
blindspot detection
lane departure
collision detection
adaptive cruise control
electronic brake distribution / ABS
navigation
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
International standard ISO 7736. Cars have had "modular infotainment systems" for as long as I can remember. My old Z car had an am radio, that later upgraded to FM cassette, then added a 6-disc CD changer, then when the changer finally died, yanked it all, installed a flip out 7" LCD w/bluetooth, NAVi, Pandora, etc. Every car I ever owned eventually got some kind of upgrade to the "infotainment system." What I see happening is bluetooth taking the show, and your phone does everything else, the car would only have an amp, speakers, touchscreen, and bluetooth, that is all, it doesn't NEED a hd, no 4G, no disks, no computer, nothing. Want an upgrade? Get a new phone, or may only need an app for that.
how frequent is the handjob?
I spent 3 years (2003~2006) working with a company to deliver MP3 Car Stereos for GM. I believe they still deliver vehicles with them, but keep in mind, very little change had occurred in car stereos before that. Telematics (Auto PCs) had been worked on, too, I was involved with projects at Visteon and Lear, but that was 1999~2002 time frame, and the technology just wasn't there.
There is also a lot more to development of automotive ANYTHING. Electronics have to be a lot more robust (-40degF~140degF, high humidity, vibration, shock, etc...), materials used have to match the car interiors (and be properly made to not fade 'differently' from the rest). Once a product is usable, it goes through a lot of tweaking, as product line engineers determine calibrations to set (like lighting, for example). Failure Modes need to be sorted out to make it as bullet-proof as possible.
Oh, and LOTS AND LOTS of testing. On the bench, in the cars...
We had looked at jumpstarting more advanced tech, like HDDs in the radios to act as radio 'DVRs' and store user's audio tracks. At the time, drives were cost prohibitive and there were still too many legal issues to make it practical.
Mix in the regulatory issues like Driver Distraction, and an immature market, and there are good reasons why design hasn't settled down yet. It's just not as simple as throwing in a general purpose PC with a touchscreen mounted to the dash.
Five years ago, we (drivers) were all buying dedicated GPS units - now we get those features in our smart phones and tablets and desire integration into the car. Dashcams are all the rage in Russia, and probably should be everywhere else. Cars are getting smarter with vision systems (having worked on some of those systems now in use, you cannot imagine just how complicated those are) that do everything from detecting lane changes, signs and oncoming headlights (to dim brights) to braking for unexpected hazards.
The problem with this, and why I bring it up, is that we have no idea what form factors and features we'll demand in 5 years. Automotive, much like mobile, is undergoing tremendous growth where automation is concerned. Unlike mobile, there are still a lot of things computers can do for us as features of our cars that we really haven't fully figured out yet.